By PHILLIPS COMMUNITY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT PARTNERS
Welcome back to the Phillips Community Oral History Project monthly update! This Column is an important part of the Project’s outreach to the Phillips Community. Its purpose is to share key progress milestones and to remain accountable to the people of Phillips.
The Oral History Project is continuing to gather histories from Phillips residents through scheduled interviews and pop-up events. In October, we hosted one pop-up interview event at Ebenezer Tower, and also visited the Phillips Clean Sweep to interview attendees and volunteers. We will continue to schedule interviews and plan pop-ups; if you’re unable to attend one but wish to be interviewed, please reach out to us at the email at the end of this update.
Below are a couple of highlights from the interviews thus far. We’re still in the process of archiving and transcribing these records, so what follows is just a sample of what will become more easily accessible as the Project progresses.
One of our first interviews conducted was with Rico Morales, long-term Phillips resident and organizer with communities facing housing instability. Morales’s reflections stressed changing conditions for workers since he first arrived in the 1990s. As Morales remembers, the 1990s were an easier time to work as a day laborer. Neighborhood staffing agencies like AAA Daily Labor and Dolphin were an opportunity for workers without a high school degree, or those with a criminal record, to find work. Much of this work was in well known places like the Metrodome. Morales lamented how a stricter job market makes it harder for people to find such work. “You could do the work and get paid and people didn’t ask a lot of questions about history or backgrounds … [It was] very much more liberal, accepting and welcoming.” Morales argued that increasing homelessness could be attributed to fewer of these types of opportunities that he had when he was younger.
Ms. Myrna Bowman was interviewed more recently at the pop-up event in Ebenezer Tower. A resident of Ebenezer with a work history in nursing homes herself, Ms. Bowman shared many details about the history of Ebenezer Tower and other neighborhood retirement and assisted living homes. Since her first job in Phillips in 1962, she recalled several institutions that have since closed or been bought out: Franklin Nursing Home, Retired Teachers Home, and the changing ownership of Ebenezer Tower. Ms. Bowman shared documents and scrapbooks from Ebenezer Tower, giving further details about how residential living has changed in her years working and living in Phillips.
As we continue to conduct interviews then transcribe and archive them, we look forward to gathering more such stories about the communities that make up Phillips.
If you have any questions about the Project or are interested in participating/volunteering, please reach out to us at info@unitedphillips.org. Accountability to our communities is a core commitment of this Project, and we will let this Column be a place to have that dialogue.
